“Do not make me drag every sentence out of you.”
Simone wiped her face.
“We met through work.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“How long have you been talking?”
She hesitated.
“About six months.”
Darius nodded.
The phone records.
Six months.
“Talking how?”
Simone began crying.
Darius’s face hardened.
“Talking how?”
“It became emotional.”
“What does emotional mean?”
“We got close.”
“Did you kiss him?”
She said nothing.
Darius looked away.
“When?”
“Darius.”
“When?”
“February.”
It was September.
Seven months.
He felt physically sick.
“How many times?”
“It wasn’t…”
He looked at her.
Simone stopped.
Darius waited.
“How many times?”
“A few.”
“How many is a few?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Five.”
He stared.
She corrected herself.
“Six.”
Darius stood.
Simone immediately reached toward him.
He stepped away.
“Don’t touch me.”
She lowered her hand.
Darius paced toward the sink.
He pressed both palms against the counter.
“Did you sleep with him?”
The silence was longer this time.
Darius closed his eyes.
He knew.
Still, he needed the word.
“Simone.”
“Yes.”
Something inside him broke quietly.
No shouting.
No slammed furniture.
Just a sudden certainty that the life he thought he was living did not exist.
“How long?”
“Since April.”
Darius turned.
“April?”
She nodded.
Their engagement photographs had been taken in May.
They ordered invitations in June.
They toured honeymoon resorts in July.
All while she was sleeping with someone else.
Darius stared at her.
“You were planning our wedding.”
“I know.”
“While sleeping with him.”
“I know.”
“You had me standing in venues picking menus while you were sleeping with another man.”
Simone covered her face.
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
She started crying harder.
Darius pointed toward the bedroom upstairs.
“Saturday morning, you were sitting beside me talking about wedding invitations.”
“I know.”
“Then you walked downstairs, and another man asked if I was gone.”
Simone said nothing.
Darius’s voice rose.
“Was he planning to come here?”
“No.”
“Truth.”
“No.”
“Then why did he ask?”
“He wanted to call me.”
“Why couldn’t he call while I was home?”
Simone looked at him.
Darius answered his own question.
“Because I wasn’t supposed to know he existed.”
She lowered her eyes.
He sat again.
Suddenly exhausted.
“Why Pizza Hut?”
Simone stared at the table.
“Because I knew you wouldn’t question it.”
The honesty felt crueler than another lie.